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4.6 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 5
One of the Most Emotionally Honest Books on Creativity
Format: Paperback
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life endures not because it offers rigid writing instruction, but because it understands the emotional reality of trying to make art while remaining a functioning human being. Lamott approaches writing with humor, candor, and an unusual willingness to acknowledge the insecurity, vanity, paralysis, and vulnerability that often accompany creative work.
What stands out most is the humanity of the book. The advice is practical, but the deeper value comes from the permission it gives writers to work imperfectly—to begin messily, doubt themselves, lose momentum, and continue anyway. Lamott treats creativity less as a performance of talent and more as a sustained relationship with attention, persistence, and emotional honesty.
The prose itself mirrors the philosophy she advocates: conversational, alive, emotionally direct, and unconcerned with appearing overly polished. At times the tone can feel loose or anecdotal, but that looseness is also part of what makes the book feel companionable rather than instructional in a rigid sense.
Beneath the warmth and humor is a serious understanding of observation. Again and again, Lamott returns to the importance of specificity, noticing, and telling the truth about experience without trying to force meaning prematurely.
It’s ultimately less a manual on writing technique than a guide to surviving the psychological conditions required to keep writing at all.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Honest, humorous and full of passion, Bird by Bird is a how-to guide to approaching writing as a life path.
Format: Paperback
Bird by Bird is Anne Lamott’s love song to the writing process and Anne Lamott’s detailed 12-step program for surviving the craft of writing. Using a loving and humorous voice, she shares intimate details of her experience as a writer, reader and teacher. She relies heavily on humorous stories from her childhood and early writing career to illustrate the pitfalls and joys of writing, while doling out a treasure chest of practical advice to the aspiring and experienced writer. Bird by Bird is a pep talk and a how-to guide to approaching writing as a life path.
I’ve read this book many times over the years, and what I always remember most is her description of her relationship with her father, who was also a writer. More than anything Bird by Bird is a memoir, and the reason it has touched so many hearts and inspired so many careers, is because Anne Lamott wears her heart and her life story on her sleeve as she shares intimate and hard won life lessons on and off the page. She writes, “One of the things that happens when you give yourself permission to start writing is that you start thinking like a writer. You start seeing everything as material.” I love this line because it reminds me to give myself permission to be, to remember, to observe and to create. Like Anne Lamott, I grew up in the shadow of loving, charming and powerful writer. I learned the craft and life of a writer from my Mom, and it wasn’t until later in life that I realized that everyone didn’t grow up that way.
Reading through with a highlighter this time, I was struck by all the voices Anne Lamott brings to the page. Lammott’s voice is primarily humorous, frank and self deprecating. When she wants to evoke something profound, grave or aspirational, she tends to lean on the voices of her favorite writers throughout the cannon, which she either paraphrases or quotes directly. I really admire this technique, it’s such a great way to vary her advice, give her message more credence while keeping the book in her voice. I want to remember this. There’s a nice example of this early on when she’s talking about what inspires someone to write, she writes, “Interviewers ask famous writers why they write, and it was (if I remember correctly) the poet John Ashbery who answered, “Because I want to.” Flannery O’Connnor answered, “Because I’m good at it,” and when the occasional interviewer asks me, I quote them both.” By bringing Ashbery and O’Connor into the conversation, Lammot elevates her personal experience to a universal truth.
Another one of my favorite aspects of this guide / memoir is the realistic depiction of not only the writing but the publishing experience. She debunks every single romantic notion of writing – while carefully creating her own shrine to the experience. One of my favorite moments is when she breaks down any hope of a feeling of satisfaction for a writer. She perfectly sums up the endless aching and seeking inherent to the writing life. She writes:
How do you know when you’re done?
This is question my students always ask. I don’t quite know how to answer it. You just do. I think my students believe that when a published writer finishes something, she crosses the last t, pushes back from the desk, yawn, stretches, and smiles. I do not know anyone who has ever done this, not even once,”
This excerpt makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. I think because in my experience as a publicist / publisher I do know some authors who have done this, and those are the ones I fear most.
Honest, humorous and full of passion, this book separates the die-hards from the casual writers, it’s like a litmus test and hazing, and if you make it to the end you emerge a convert.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2016
★★★★★ 5
Bird by Bird is a delight for readers and writers alike
Format: Paperback
I’m on this rereading kick and also on a reading-books-about-writing kick and Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott, heads the list. Part writing guide, part life coaching session, and part true confessions, Bird by Bird is a delight for readers and writers alike. One summer, Lamott’s ten year-old brother had waited three months to begin a project on birds that was due the next day. Close to tears and unable to even move, he sat among his books and papers at the kitchen table. Lamott’s father, a writer and maybe Lamott’s favorite person ever, put an arm around his son and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
The book is peppered with such sage advice while Lamott remains the quintessential social commenter and odd man out, full of more than a few stories of her life gone wrong. What makes her writing so enjoyable is the rough terrain she’s crossed to bring it to us through glimpses of her childhood and the rest of her life. Lamott shares some of her writing techniques such as sitting at her desk and staring at a small one-inch empty picture frame when she’s out of ideas. She watches that picture frame until something comes to her. Sometimes she gets up to make a phone call or eat a snack while the picture frame sits there as a reminder, but she always goes back to her chair and that picture frame. To be a writer, she tells her students, you have to sit your butt in a chair and not get up until you’ve written something no matter how long it takes or how terrible it is, and then you have to do that again the next day and the one after that. You may write four or five pages before you get one or two good paragraphs, she says, but keep at it. She encourages her students to reveal their most desperate fears and phobias and bring them to the surface for dissection and reassembly as literary gold.
Unfortunately for Lamott, her worst moments have become her best prose. Take the most horrible school lunch ever and turn it into a brilliant comedic twist of events. Never miss and opportunity to go for your own jugular, but just flash the knife, don’t really cut your throat. In Lamott’s world, writing is therapy and since she’s taken some of the heaviest stuff of her life and exposed it, often with hilarity, to the sun and wind and elements where it can be alchemized, she’s become her own therapist. Or maybe she still needs therapy, but at least there’s a great story to be told. I question whether the pain and suffering is necessary for the craft or whether it just makes the writer more observant -- nothing like fear to sharpen the senses -- and hence, more readily able to translate those observations to the rest of the world. Once you’ve mined your childhood for all the despondency and suffering you can recall along with all the nasty characters that have wreaked havoc upon you, stick them between fictional pages for everyone to see, while being careful to obscure them so ingeniously through changes of place or time or hair color that no one will recognize themselves. Also, always give the male character a small penis. It cuts down on potential libel suits. These are your the tools of the trade, says Lamott. Your heartbreak, your inability to fit in, your desire to be part of another family, relationship, community, etc., one that obviously had it better than yours, and your unlimited ability to manipulate facts. Also, never miss an opportunity to capitalize on all your accumulated crap.
If you are a writer, Bird by Bird will provide you with a step-by-step guide that will boost your writing by degrees, from s***ty first drafts to publication, but my guess is that Bird by Bird will help you with your life maybe just the teeniest bit more.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015
★★★★★ 5
Getting words onto the page!
Format: Kindle
There seem to be as many books about how to write as there are actual writers, yet Anne Lamott makes a solid if not altogether inspiring contribution to the collection. Also known for her non-fiction books dealing with depression, Christianity, and alcoholism, in Bird by Bird author Lamott turns her humor and autobiographical lens toward offering sage advice and inspiration for writers of all levels. While far from Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and mute on the meter of poetry and the tropes of science fiction, Lamott instead focuses more on psychological issues that confront and haunt writers from all genres, such as defeating the blank page, avoiding perfectionism obsessions, cranking out that first draft, and writing for the right reasons.
A breadth of writing advice, Bird by Bird gets its title from wisdom Lamott's father once gave to her brother, incapacitated by the task of writing a school essay on birds. The senior Lamott advised the younger to break the assignment down into manageable chunks: "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." Divided into five parts, in part one Lamott first addresses writing itself -- getting words onto the page. Lamott starts by giving the aspiring author permission to write and then by encouraging the author to just get the words onto the page. Go ahead, just create that first, messy draft: "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere." She then suggests focusing more on creating compelling characters than worrying about plot: "If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you know and are getting to know better day by day, something is bound to happen." She even discusses a short story template -- action, background, development, climax, ending -- that can be used as an initial story structure. Dialog is important too, and compelling dialog can be influenced by real-life encounters, but the main goal is to get that first draft written, in short steps, a little each day.
In part Two Lamott talks about the writing frame of mind -- about how authors can psyche themselves into writing using rituals at the beginning of each writing session and by believing in the stories they are telling. Part Three presents specific tools authors can use to help recall memorable quotes and scenes, how to collect new material, and how to gain feedback on drafts, such as using index cards on which to jot down ideas, joining or forming writing groups and sending drafts to a short-list of people an author trusts to give honest and useful feedback, and overcoming writer's block by refilling the author's emptiness through short exercises just to get the fingers moving. In part Four Lamott talks about the publication process and why an author simply giving herself to the writing act in and of itself is often the best reward: "There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver." Part Five contains final words of wisdom and encouragement for the budding author. For example, an author should not hesitate to use experiences from their childhood (and tips are given on how to avoid libel when using autobiographical material).
Overall, rather than being the strict writing schoolmarm, Lamott is more like a writing companion. She chats over your shoulder with you at the end of the day, sipping a glass of wine, reflecting on her own experiences in the writing trenches, and sharing what worked for her in achieving success. Her advice is true and her voice is encouraging -- she uses self-deprecating humor to convince any reader that their writing anguish is neither new nor unique since Lamott herself has likely already confronted and conquered those same demons. She persevered and achieved success, and the reader of her book too shall overcome and get their story onto the page. She mentions God throughout, but she does not come across as preachy. Again, she's relating what worked for her, using anecdotes from memorable episodes in her life. There's no magic and no divine inspiration to solve writing problems--she uses real techniques and encouragement to help confront and conquer the blank page.
Indeed, we can all use encouragement and insights from someone who's already been there. Like the oft-repeated "Practice, practice, practice" response by legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein when he was stopped on a street in New York and was asked, "Pardon me sir, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?", Lamott's response to writers in Bird by Bird is just as wise and true, but perhaps even more motivational due to her humor and honest expression from the trenches.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011
★★★★★ 3
Worthwhile, though average, experience
Format: Kindle
I'll start this review by stating that I'm not an aspiring novelist, at least at the moment. A hearty recommendation prompted me to read this book, though I had only a cursory idea of the subject matter. At a time when it seems that only raving praise or apoplectic hate receive meaningful attention, stating that something is only okay or average feels especially hostile. Unfortunately I must admit that was my finding of this book, that it was a middle of the road, if not totally unexceptional, experience that elicited little in the way of strong responses. Let me be clear: there is value in this book especially for the would-be writer looking for advice, try a sample to feel this book out and don't let my ambivalence scare you off.
The positives should probably come first, right? The author is clearly passionate about the subject and it doesn't matter what the topic happens to be, when the writer cares about the topic it immediately makes the book more enjoyable to read. Ms. Lamott's writing is straightforward and honest and I appreciate that immensely. Another book I was reading concurrently too often felt pedantic and by comparison this one did not reek of this stench one bit. The author is perhaps overly generous in her use of quotes, but they're not cloying as if to convince you that she should be taken seriously. Instead these quotations are offered as useful pearls of wisdom. I come from a world of academia where too many quotations tend to be frowned upon, but you may like them so chalk this up to my own biases. While Ms. Lamott doesn't suffocate you with her qualifications, she is entirely within her rights to do so. I say this to illustrate the following point: if you are willing, this book can help you with something. As I said, I'm not looking to publish a novel, article or really anything but there are suggestions and advice that apply beyond the page. I count this as the book's main strength and what keeps it from being entirely forgettable. A challenge I often face, like any writers reading this review, is just getting started and the exhortation offered by the author was so true that I cannot help but to think of the help it will give me. The book is also humble, it doesn't get convoluted and I think avoiding that pitfall deserves praise.
The negatives, specific to me perhaps, start with the sense that I found the description of writing and the writing process too mystical. Maybe this too irritates nerves made too sensitive by years of academic rather than creative writing, but if I were looking for advice on a finishing a short story the encouragement to "listen to my characters" would seem silly to me. I understand that the author can only relay what has been helpful to her but it at times seems overly caught up with the love affair of writing as opposed to more substantive things a person can try. Secondly, the tendency just mentioned all too often takes up more space than what seems to be needed and the book is consequently longer than it felt like it needed to be.
Overall, I found this book to be a solid middle-of-the-road experience. I wouldn't dismiss it totally but I found myself having to look the other way on several occasions. That maybe speaks more to my background than anything else and if you are a fan of the author please don't take it that I'm trying to tarnish her work in any way. Really, I guess this review is more geared to the person like me who is perhaps not a writer in the sense envisaged by this book. Maybe you are being recommended at this very instant to pick up a copy and maybe, like me, you're somewhat skeptical. To this hypothetical person I say this: it is worth reading even if the starry-eyed expressions get a little trite after a while. I would argue that this is a bit of high praise by itself, it isn't too often that somebody would say that a generally average book is worth the time it takes to read it. I think that's worth something, maybe about as much as this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2014
